23,000 benefit from humanitarian mission

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Some 23,000 people have benefited from a two-day humanitarian mission by various government agencies in the southern Philippine province of Misamis Oriental where communist rebels are actively operating, officials said on Sunday.

Government troops also joined the mission in Gingoog City dubbed as “National Serbisyo Caravan” participated by different military units under the Eastern Mindanao Command.

Captain Alberto Caber, a regional army spokesman, said the recent humanitarian mission was a convergence of concerned national agencies for the delivery of basic services. “The event also became the venue for consultation and dialogue between the community and government agencies,” he told The Manila Times.

The project was spearheaded by the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process under Teresita Deles and Undersecretary Emmanuel Bautista, and the Cabinet Cluster on Security and Justice.

Late last year, the communist New People’s Army rebels freed Private First Class Adonis Jess Losiba, who was captured in Gingoog City, after four months in captivity. Adonis, a member of the 58th Infantry Battalion, was released following appeals from his family.

In 2013, rebels also ambushed and wounded Mayor Ruthie Guingona and killed two of her supporters. The political matriarch was heading home from a beauty pageant when gunmen ambushed her convoy. Guingona is the wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona and mother of Senator Teofisto Guingona 3rd.